


it's my favorite business interaction

by inmylife



Series: mall au [1]
Category: Weki Meki (Band)
Genre: F/F, based off that one tumblr post, guess who lua's girlfriend in claire's is, minhyun is jr's boyfriend from the macy's it's true expect a 2hyun fic in this verse at some point, there isn't enough fluffy weme fic on this site, they all work in a mall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 12:16:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13248051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: "Doyeon unnie, as much as I appreciate this, I'm seventeen. When am I going to need this?""Interviews," Doyeon says offhandedly."What… kind of interviews…?""Like your date with Hyojung," Yoojung helpfully supplies. "That's sort of an interview.""Who said I was going on a date with Hyojung?"





	it's my favorite business interaction

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this: https://slightlyintimidating.tumblr.com/post/169192486165/lesbianchrispine-orarewedancy
> 
> i'm new to desktop ao3 so if someone could tell me how to link that monstrosity up there onto normal text that'd be awesome thanks!!!

It's not Soeun but Haelim who's working the counter the first time the girls from Ralph Lauren show up.

 

Soeun works in a GameStop. In a fairly big mall. Across the hallway from Ralph Lauren, which she and her coworkers are a little intimidated by, because it's _Ralph Lauren_ and their go-to outfits are, like, Miyazaki t-shirts and jeans with paint stains on them. So when Haelim tells this story in the break room Soeun is immediately on her guard, because she _does not trust_ the girls from the Ralph Lauren across the way.

 

They're scary. And sexy. And Soeun maybe has a little crush on the blonde one with the pink highlights whose shift always starts at the same time as hers.

 

"They came in," Haelim says, and _god_ does Haelim have a great storytelling voice because even with that one line Soeun wants to know more, "and the one girl - the sexy one with the dusty brown hair, you know - she asks, hey, can we use your microwave because we don't have one and we used to go to the Claire's but it moved to the other end of the mall. So I say, sure, help yourself, and I'm lowkey a little embarrassed because, well - I love my orange hair but it looks just a little tacky next to the tiny blonde one's dye job - "

 

"You're one to talk," mutters Sookyung bitterly, batting at her own failed dusty-rose strands.

 

"- Anyways. So I say, sure, but as they're about to leave I say, wait. We should get something in return, o holy Ralph Lauren employees, queens of sexiness and femininity - I didn't actually say that part," she reassures Suyeon when the older girl makes a face. "And the tiny blonde one says, sure, anything for the microwave because Hyojung gets bitchy if her soup isn't warm, and the tall blonde one - the one you like, Soeun -"

 

"Hey," Soeun comments, but she doesn't try to defend herself more because Haelim is right and Haelim is also stubborn and it's no use trying to argue with her.

 

"The tall blonde one hits the tiny one and says, how about you guys can use our bathroom, and of course I say deal because we all hate trekking the five minutes to the food court."

 

Suyeon nods in satisfaction. "Well played, Haelim. Well played."

 

(Later, Soeun switches her Saturday shift with one of Jonghyun's, because she wants to be there when the tall blonde girl - no, she has a name now, and it's Hyojung - comes in to use the GameStop microwave. Jonghyun is fine with this, because now he's free to go to Auntie Anne's with his boyfriend who works at Macy's on said boyfriend's break. Jonghyun's the best, honestly.)

 

+

 

The Ralph Lauren girls do in fact come in that Saturday. The tall sexy one with the long hair waves to Soeun. "Hi," she greets. "I'm Doyeon. We should probably know each other's names, since you guys will be using our bathroom and all."

 

"I'm Soeun," she says, quietly but not enough so that they can't hear her. Soeun curses because she showered last night instead of this morning so her hair is a staticky mess and because she's wearing her ratty old Kaonashi shirt and because -

 

"Hey, is that from Miyazaki?"

 

It's tall blonde girl. Hyojung. Something in Soeun dies a little bit.

 

"I - yeah."

 

"Cool," she says, and smiles, and heads to the GameStop's back room.

 

Tiny blonde girl introduces herself as Yoojung, but Soeun barely comprehends her.

 

Hyojung recognized her t-shirt. Hyojung thought it was _cool_.

 

Hyojung _smiled_ at her.

 

+

 

It's not for another few days that she finds herself needing the bathroom at work, and it's not for another few days after that that Soeun manages to psych herself up enough to walk across the hall to Ralph Lauren instead of walking five minutes to the one in the food court. She's just cut her hair the day before, and dyed the remnants of her blue streaks back to black, and she still isn't quite used to the feeling of _not_ having her hair swish at the small of her back.

 

She enters when there aren't any customers in the Ralph Lauren, enters in the middle of some monologue of Yoojung's.

 

She's gotten to know them fairly well, really, in the past two weeks or so that the Ralph Lauren girls have been using their microwave. There's Doyeon, who acts sexy but is really a huge dork, and Yoojung, who acts like she's twelve but looks damn good in a suit, and their supervisor Jaeseok, a tall, pretty man with a fondness for coffee and anything sweet.

 

And then there's Hyojung, who Soeun hasn't really gotten to know at all.

 

"And she has the nerve to say to me, and get this - she says, well what's the point of buying it if I'm going to have to iron it every time I wear it?" The smaller girl pauses for effect. "You buy it to fucking look decent, dear lord. Some of the people who come in here - god." Yoojung shakes her head.

 

"Well, it could be worse," Doyeon comments. "At least you didn't have to deal with the woman who brought a blouse back in here to return, a month after our return policy deadline no less, because she'd put the thing in the washing machine. It's on the tag. Like…" She notices Soeun's presence and stops. "Oh, hi! Bathroom's that way, first door," Doyeon points. The others wave hello.

 

Hyojung is there when Soeun comes back out. "I like your hair," the younger girl comments. "It's classy."

 

Soeun freezes for a second. "I - ah - um. Thanks?" And then she hightails it out of the store.

 

("She said she liked my hair, unnie!" Soeun stage-whispers to Sookyung while they're restocking the latest edition of Civ. "She said it was _classy_!"

 

"You're so whipped," Sookyung says, shaking her head, but unable to keep a small smile off her face. It's her unnie smile, as Soeun likes to call it, the smile that says, I'm older and know the ways of the world and you are but an adorable hapless dongsaeng.

 

"Oh, you're one to talk," Soeun mutters. "We all know why you smile every time you come back from visiting the Claire's."

 

"Yah!"

 

Sookyung ends up destroying aisle five in her attempt to get back at Soeun, but that's fine. Soeun was right, anyways.)

 

+  


When Soeun comes into work about a week later, Suyeon and Yoojung are huddled together behind the counter. Suyeon is talking quietly, gesturing a bit.

 

"What's up?" Soeun asks.

 

"I'm just explaining GURPS to Yoojung."

 

As always, Soeun has to hold back a snort at the awkward name of Suyeon's RPG of choice.

 

"It's actually… kind of interesting?" Yoojung looks confused, most likely because Suyeon's explaining the rules of a game where rule number one is _there are no rules_ , but, you know. When in GameStop, do as the employees do. It's sweet that she's trying.

 

+

 

"It's such a pain in the ass," Jaeseok sighs.

 

"What is?" asks Haelim as she walks into the store.

 

"Steaming silk shirts," Soeun informs her coworker dryly. She doesn't know how this started - all Soeun knows is that she came in to use the bathroom but for some reason it was flooded because of the construction of some jewelry shop next door. And because it wasn't urgent (really, Soeun just needed the mirror), she'd stayed, because they're in the post-Christmas lull and their manager Hyerin won't miss her too much.

 

"It's actually ridiculous, what you have to do, unnie, really," Hyojung begins to explain animatedly to Haelim. Soeun tunes out because she's already gotten this lesson from Doyeon and besides, Hyojung is just so pretty while she talks. The younger girl has dyed her hair recently, going from haystack blonde to a dusty brown, the way Doyeon's is.

 

(There really ought to be a hair dye store in the mall, or at least a salon, given how often the employees dye their hair. Oh well.)

 

"If you don't do it right, the shirt gets all wrinkly - and wrinkles are worse in silk shirts than regular shirts," Yoojung is informing Haelim.

 

"Mmm," says Haelim, and Soeun can tell her coworker is holding back a laugh. "That's… that really sucks, doesn't it."

 

"It _does_ ," says Jaeseok, loudly and completely serious, and this time neither Soeun nor Haelim can hold back their laughter.

 

+

 

Solar Jewelry opens up two weeks later. Soeun hates them on principle, because they flooded the Ralph Lauren bathroom in their hour of need. Hyojung appears to hate them for an entirely different reason.

 

"The employee who was in there when I visited them, Yongsun-ssi. She was wearing teal, unnie! Who wears teal in January, it's a summer color!" Hyojung huffs. "And it's not only that. Her shirt wasn't fitted properly. I wouldn't trust her to sell me a ring for 9 million won when she can't wear a blouse right."

 

Soeun is no less awkward around Hyojung as she was in October, but she's definitely less awkward around the girl's coworkers. Over the past months, she's taught Yoojung the basics of Pokemon Ruby, had a Miyazaki marathon with Doyeon, and convinced Jaeseok to make a Discord account. In return, the Ralph Lauren unnies had taken her shopping (in the Macy's, not in their own store, because god forbid) for business attire.

 

("Doyeon unnie, as much as I appreciate this, I'm seventeen. When am I going to need this?"

 

"Interviews," Doyeon says offhandedly.

 

"What… _kind_ of interviews…?"

 

"Like your date with Hyojung," Yoojung helpfully supplies. "That's sort of an interview."

 

"Who said I was going on a date with Hyojung?")

 

"It's so cute when you do that," Soeun says offhandedly, and then panics. She had _not_ meant to say that out loud.

 

"...cute?" Hyojung says, very measuredly.

 

"I - I mean -"

 

"When I do what?"

 

"When you, like." Soeun blinks, struggling to formulate the thought. "Go on rants about stuff most people don't think about. Like fitting blouses or whatever."

 

"Well," ventures Hyojung, "I think it's cute when you doodle little Pokemon on your jeans." Soeun looks down guiltily, and it's true - she has the remnants of a Squirtle drawn in blue pen on the faded denim. Well, there's more than the Squirtle, really, but that one's the newest. "I think - I think you're cute, period."

 

Time, for Soeun, stops.

 

"Soeun unnie, will you go out with me?"

 

+

 

Like everything they do, of course it's at the mall. In the Ruby Tuesdays near the carousel, where none of their friends work because all the employees are grown adults, and not cool grown adults like Jisung or Insun.

 

Soeun wears her clothes from the Macy's. She sends Doyeon and Yoojung a selfie. Yoojung responds with a winky face.

 

Hyojung spends about half their date venting about people who bring their small children into the Ralph Lauren. Soeun wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
